“And when they would get rude with me I’d say, look, put yourself in my shoes. I said don’t think for one minute because you’re on the other end of the phone that it can’t happen to you,” adds homeowner Sherry Eggler. “I want it over with! And I want us to be left alone and get on with our lives.”

Todd and Sherry are both Bank of America homeowners who’ve tried to short sell their homes.

For Todd, “It’s probably the most stressful thing that I’ve dealt with in my lifetime.”

A short sale is when your home is worth less than the remaining value of your mortgage. It’s what you do to avoid foreclosure when even a loan modification won’t keep you in your home.

“Short sales are probably 70% of the listings out there right now,” explains realtor James Allen.

And with Bank of America holding one in three Nevada mortgages, the servicing giant is at the center of a firestorm of criticism over the short sale process.

We read some of your e-mails to Bank of America’s senior vice president in charge of short sales.

“And this person says “Bank of America acts with reckless abandon and extraordinary incompetence when it comes to short sales.” What do you say to that customer,” asked Contact 13 Chief Investigator Darcy Spears.

“I would refute that to the degree that we’re very proud of the work that our team does on behalf of Bank of America and our customers and ultimately the investors,” answered Bank of America’s Matt Vernon. “Certainly there have been some challenges in the past. But with that said, we’re very focused on an efficient process.”

Sherry Eggler says the process is anything but efficient. She and her husband, Freddie, moved here from Georgia to build the home they intended to retire in. But when the economy tanked and their retirement savings went with it, they knew they’d have to give up their dream.

“It hurt. It hurt,” says Sherry, trying hard to hold back tears.

When the loan modification Bank of America offered wouldn’t save them enough money, Sherry says the bank advised a short sale.

But all that did, she says, was put their lives on hold.

“The realtor would call and say, oh Sherry, they need copies of your W-2s again, they need bank copies again, they need this again. I must have done that 10 times and finally I said you know what? No more!”

So what is the root of the problem?

“There’s too many hands in the pot,” says Sherry. “Too many chefs in the kitchen.”

Bogging down the process for so long that she says they lost a buyer willing to pay the set price.

“They must have waited three-four months, five months, and they kept assigning new negotiators. And that is so stupid because they shot their own self in the foot.”

And through it all, there was the constant threat of foreclosure.

“They keep telling me, making threats that our house is gonna be sold on the court doorstep.”

We took her concerns to Bank of America.

“There is a mountain of frustration among our Las Vegas viewing population with what’s going on with B of A short sales,” Spears told Matt Vernon.

And when we asked why there are so many hands in the cookie jar, he said there were too many homes in the short sale process.

“And because of that growth in the business, it often required multiple hand-offs. We recognize that that’s not beneficial to the transaction and are committed to limiting those hand-offs so there is continuity throughout the process.”

All of it too late for Sherry Eggler.

“One time I think I did say that well, if this keeps up I think we just need to get an attorney.”

That’s what Todd Lanquist did after he says the bank’s foot-dragging cost him several potential buyers.

“It’s my fear. Losing my house.”

He says he’s having to sue for the right to sell.

“And that’s just absurd. Absolutely absurd. If it’s a fair sale at a fair price, the bank should be held to it,” says Matthew Callister, Todd’s lawyer.

Realtor James Allen calls B of A the worst of corporate America coming to the surface.

“It’s a red flag. Some agents will not write an offer on a B of A short sale, which is basically hurting us all across the board.”

“And if they don’t learn from this,” Sherry says, “then I don’t know what it would take. They just have some serious, serious inside issues.”

“In no way shape or form are we in that optimal state, but we have vastly improved and we expect to continue to improve,” Vernon says.

We’ll be watching to see if Bank of America does improve. Remember, if you have a problem with a short sale, loan modification or any housing-related matter, Bank of America has opened two resource centers: one in Las Vegas and one in Henderson.